Monday, December 2, 2013

Best Christmas Gift Ever!!

Everybody
who celebrates Christmas can immediately answer this question when
asked: What is the best Christmas gift you ever received?
Some people will reminisce about their first bicycle – perhaps
red with a fancy leather seat, or a doll that talks and blinks and cries
and wets, or the hottest new gaming system around.
Others might recall less material gifts such as time with loved ones, or a special gesture coming from an unexpected person.

For me, my favorite Christmas gifts have literally always taken on a life of their own.
When I was in first grade, I got the best gift a kid could ever
hope for: a puppy! Santa delivered my sweet little dark brown poodle in a
wicker basket from which “Pippin” immediately jumped out.
While I have always enjoyed and appreciated receiving the gifts I have been given since then, it is…well…hard to top a puppy!

That is, until I turned about 32 yrs old.
Then, I got to give the best gift I could ever give.
For Christmas that year, my husband and I carefully wrapped picture frames for my parents.
These frames were not just any frames, however. These frames had a picture of a sonogram in them!
This was indeed the announcement of the expectation of their first grandchild.
Nobody even remembers what else everybody got after opening that gift.
But again, notice the theme here folks: the gift of life.

And lastly, I must tell you that I’ve actually even gotten to
be the best gift. Now, look at my pen-name below.
You see it? It’s Eve. Why do you suppose that is?
I’ll help you out here: I was born on Christmas Eve.
During a blizzard. Defying the odds.
Definitely the miracle of life at play here as well.

Certainly, we all know that Christmas is the celebration of Christ’s birth.
But for me, the significance of the holiday has become a woven
tapestry of the beauty of life itself: be it His, ours, family, friends
and strangers.
I hope you enjoy this Christmas and get to cherish life-affirming moments throughout the season.
Merry Christmas!